I just scanned briefly an article at AMAC about all the strange party shifts that have taken place. Many of the old corporatist Bushies like the Cheneys - father and daughter - have become Democrats. On the other hand one of the famous Kennedys endorses Trump, and hardly a week goes by without someone in elective office announcing they're no longer a Democrat. Ditto the Silicon Valley oligarchs.
All of these are the fallout of a shift in our two major parties. The Republicans have become the party of the working class, and increasingly it seems of the BIPOC part of that class. Conversely the more finicky members of the educated elite have become Democrats, probably because of their status insecurity - a fear of being miscast as no longer elite.
This process is not new. Remember Ronald Reagan said he didn't leave the Democratic Party, rather it left him. At about the same time millions of white southerners, who'd been Democrats since Reconstruction, became Republicans.
Within each of our major parties, coalitions shifting over time is no new thing. It goes on today as some of the left-behind like Ruy Teixeira bemoan what was lost.
Personally I welcome the new Republican policy concerns of lost manufacturing and fair trade being as important as free trade. These are issues I lectured about as a Management prof.
